Celtic Close to Signing Haissem Hassan but Midfield Needs Attention
Celtic look to be on the brink of landing Haissem Hassan, and the mood around the club reflects it. The Egyptian World Cup forward is, by all reliable accounts, “on the verge” of signing, but in Glasgow nobody truly believes a deal is done until the scarf is held aloft at Celtic Park and the cameras flash.
If – and only when – that unveiling comes, Hassan will become the club’s third summer recruit, joining Kasper Hogh and Camilo Duran in a rapidly reshaped front line. That’s serious firepower, on paper at least. It hints at a Celtic side ready to attack again, to stretch games, to throw bodies forward.
But it also masks the obvious truth.
A squad tilting out of balance
Celtic’s shopping list this summer was never going to be short. A goalkeeper is required. A back‑up left-back will arrive – Greg Taylor is the name that keeps circling. Those are important gaps to plug, but they’re not the fault line running through this squad.
The real concern is the middle of the park.
Arne Engels is expected to move on. Reo Hatate is also heading for the exit. Paulo Bernardo has already gone. Strip those three out of the equation and what remains is alarmingly thin.
Right now, the central options are Callum McGregor, Benjamin Nygren, Luke McCowan and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Four players to carry an entire season’s worth of domestic and European demands. Four players who, between them, don’t quite offer the blend Celtic desperately need.
McGregor is still the heartbeat of the side, still the one who sets the tempo and drags standards up, but he is no longer in his peak years. Oxlade-Chamberlain, a marquee name once upon a time, is in the same bracket. Experience? Yes. Craft? Yes. Relentless legs over 50-odd games? That’s another question.
Nygren and McCowan are in their prime and bring quality in possession, but neither is a pure athlete in the mould Celtic have lacked. They don’t rip through lines with sheer pace. They don’t swarm opponents for 90 minutes. And that’s exactly what has been missing.
Midfield: Celtic’s long-running Achilles heel
The absence of energy and aggression in midfield hasn’t just appeared overnight. It has been Celtic’s Achilles heel for years, and the evidence is written across their European record.
Too often they’ve been outrun. Outpressed. Overpowered.
When the tempo rises and the spaces tighten, Celtic’s midfield has struggled to live with it. The back four is not disastrous. The attack, with Hogh, Duran and now the likely arrival of Hassan, looks increasingly well stocked. But the engine room has been running on fumes.
That lack of dynamism has seeped into domestic performances as well. Games that should be put to bed drift instead. Control without bite. Possession without punch.
It’s why the next phase of this window cannot be about glamour. It has to be about graft.
Celtic don’t just need one midfielder. They need at least a couple who can change the feel of the side: players with legs, with aggression, with the stamina to press high and the courage to take the ball under pressure. Without that, the attack will starve and the defence will be exposed, no matter how many new faces arrive up front.
Firepower secured, foundations still fragile
The club has moved smartly in attack. Hogh offers presence and goals. Duran adds another edge. Hassan, if and when he signs, brings World Cup experience and another creative threat. On the teamsheet, it looks exciting.
But look beneath that front line and the picture is far less reassuring.
McGregor still leads, still applauds the fans at full-time, still carries the responsibility that comes with the armband. Nygren has already shown his eye for goal, rising to head home and give Celtic a 1–0 lead against Dundee at Celtic Park. The pieces are not without quality.
They are, however, too few. Too similar in pace. Too short on raw, disruptive energy.
That’s why the club’s main priority from this point cannot be debated. The midfield is fragile, vulnerable and about to be weakened further by departures. It needs bodies. It needs balance. It needs bite.
Celtic are close to landing another attacker. The question that will define their season is simpler, and far more brutal:
Will they finally fix the middle of the park, or watch the same old flaw drag them down again when the stakes are highest?
